Minister protests against devolution of funds to states

Our Economic Bureau

New Delhi, May 22: UTTAR Pradesh chief minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday came out strongly against conditional devolution of funds to states.

He said linking of devolution of all funds from the Centre to the states, whether as grants of the finance commission or as Central assistance through the Planning Commission, “with some conditions and for specific purposes, is not correct.”

He said, though, there had been a hefty hike in devolution of funds after the implementation of the new formula for determining states’ share in the 11th finance commission, “at a different level, it is being proposed that the funds under devolution be released to the state government with a tab of conditions and be linked with the reforms programmes,” being implemented by it.